At first when I read Genesis 23, I thought that this was a fairly boring, insignificant chapter. But then I read more closely and realized that this chapter represents the beginning of the nation of Israel. Up until this time, Abraham says he has just been a foreigner wandering in their lands. This means that he didn’t actually own any land. So he makes a plea to the Hittites to sell him a piece of land. The Hittites offer him a space in any of their nicest tombs, which at first seemed very generous. But in reality, they were trying to prevent Abraham from owning any land amongst them. Abraham has to insist in the end and pay a very heavy price for his first piece of land he owns. Although it does not specify the dimensions of the land, it appears that it was not a big piece. Abraham pays somewhere around 100 pounds of silver for the cave and field. In contrast, David spends 1/8 of that for the land for an altar and the oxen in it in 2 Samuel 24:24.
This chapter shows Abraham’s faith once again as he has officially purchased land and decided to settle permanently in the land that God told him to travel to originally. Normally I think people would bury their family in their homeland, but Abraham shows everyone that this is to be his homeland from now on and he will not be heading back to the Mesopotamia region. Abraham’s descendants will also use this place to bury their families.
Also interesting to note is that Sarah is the only women in the Bible whose age at death is given.